July is ending and the cucumber bed is already abundant with harvest. To ensure fruiting for as long as possible, you need to apply bark fertilizing. This will help the development of plant embryos and prevent yellowing and drying of the fruit.
The soil becomes fairly depleted in the first half of summer and fertilizing is just in time. It is not recommended to apply fertilizers to the bush itself - spraying, irrigating - in early August. This is explained by the fact that the plant has begun to bear fruit and the cucumbers will absorb fertilizers, which will affect their taste and keeping quality. But the fertilizer for the root will go directly to the roots, nourish the stem and help the fruits to fill.
To prepare complex fertilizer you need to take a container about 20 liters in size and place in it:
- 1 glass of wood ash (preferably after birch firewood),
- 1 liter of whey,
- 1 cup chopped nettle,
- 10 liters of boiling water.
Infuse the mixture for three to four days, shaking occasionally. It is recommended to place the container with the infusion in the shade. Cover the top with a lid.
- Wood ash is an excellent potassium fertilizer. Ash helps rid the soil of excess acidity. Potassium, selenium and other microelements included in its composition have a positive effect on plant growth and fruit filling.
- Whey will saturate it with useful elements and bifidobacteria, which will have a positive effect on the development of new ovaries.
- Nettle is a storehouse of vitamins; it contains phosphorus, iron, zinc, and in this feeding it releases them into a mixture under the influence of boiling water.
When the tincture is ready, you can add a few granules of potassium permanganate to it, or add the remains of organic fertilizers that are intended for seedlings. As a rule, such fertilizers remain after growing seedlings.
This tincture helps preserve fruiting until the first frost. It should be applied starting from August 1 until the very end of the season. Recommended frequency is once every 10 days. Fertilizer should be applied to moist soil at the root, avoiding getting fertilizer on the leaves.
The resulting infusion is watered over the cucumber ridge at a rate of 1:8 (a liter of fertilizer per 8 liters of water).
The use of such fertilizing will allow cucumbers to bear fruit much more actively and increase the number of fruits collected per square meter of plantings.
